Summary
An interesting new product has been launched by Animal Friends Insurance. The life insurance policy offers discounted premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lesser risk than their meat-eating counterparts of developing certain health conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow the policy introduced by AFI .
A none profit insurance firm has launched an insurance plan which offers vegetarians and fish-eaters a reduced price life insurance quote .
The offer, thought to be the 1st of its kind, is being pioneered by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The firm is offering vegetarians a 7% discounton mortgage life insurance premiums
The firm said that veggies ought to pay a lesser cost for the insurance, which pays out if the customer dies, because they were more unlikely to suffer from a list of chronic illnesses, including cancers.
Amanda Jude, a director at AFI, claims that the risk of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is shrunk by up to 42% and the danger of them suffering from heart disease is reduced by up to thirty two per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay identical insurance premiums as clients who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe that this is not fair and says the insurance companies should acknowledge the concept that being a veggie can make a positive impact on life expectancy and lower its monthly premiums accordingly.
A full-price policy is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both plans are sold by LV=, which was known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with standard life policies, a range of things contribute to the cost of the policies including whether the applicant smokes, their weight, age and sex.
At the moment, Animal Friends Insurance is funding the 6 per cent cheaper premium itself from the cash it receives from LV=. In the future, however, the business’s aim was to offer lower costs on specialist insurance cover. In making the offer the business is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it economically viable for LV= to underwrite another policy that takes the veggie diet into account.
Indeed there are huge savings to be made, a 42-year-oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of life cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty year term.
Where life insurance deals is concerned, AFI thinks that insurance companies should begin to treat people that eat meat and non-meat eaters in ways that are similar to the way they assess those that smoke and those that don’t. Hopefully others in the insurance industry will follow the initiative.
Some managersin the insurance industry are doubtful whether there is verifyable proof that veggies live longer, and how any insurer would know that those who had certified that they are veggies did not munch on an occasional bacon sandwich.
When it comes to smoking, it’s true that there are your Doctor’s records – if you now don’t smoke it’s likely that your Doctor is likely to know about it. But this won’t apply when it comes to eating meat, an executive from the insurance industry commented.
But some veggies contend that they are not worried about people falling off the vegetarian way of eating and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a veggie, they do not return to meat-eating, that is unlike applicants who smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their old smoking ways.
